a creative education course

I am a primary special needs teacher and after a break from teaching I've been given the role of art subject leader in the school I now teach in.  In the past I've always done Maths or IT so it's been a real treat to be responsible for art!

It is a bit of steep learning curve though!  Although I do arty things as a hobby I'm not that familiar with the art curriculum.  So I jumped at the chance to go on an art course (they are few and far between!) last week.  We started with some warm up exercises.  My drawing of the lady opposite me, using ink in a pipette, has a distinct Quentin Blake look I feel!!

Another warm up exercise involved looking at a collection of objects for a few seconds before they were covered back up with a cloth and we had to draw what we could remember.  I enjoy exercises like this, where something is stopping you making a perfect drawing (in this case 1-an unusual drawing implement  and 2-not being able to see the objects) - it's very free-ing.

Then we had a go at monoprinting...

...creating giant 'brushes' and making marks with them.  I splatted mine down onto the page and chuckled to see the ampersand-like images produced.  It wasn't intentional but I really like ampersands!...

...funny lollipop stick people...

...and drawing parts of the body then mounting them all together in a 'portrait panel.  All this took place within a giant shed in a warehouse-type building.

Above is a 'backstage' view from the offices of ASCreatives who were running the course.  All the sheds have small creative companies in them.  We were working in the large shed to the very far right of this picture.  The warehouse is owned by a charity called Baltic Creative and there is a fabulous cafe right at the front of the building.

This is all situated just in front of the anglican cathedral in Liverpool, which we had a go at drawing in the afternoon, using Sharpie pens on acetate and leaning on a clear board.

I love the result and might use it in my journals!  We spent time doing some exploded drawings in the afternoon and finished by drawing with materials.  This is our interpretation of the Liverpool dockside!  I particularly love the rain coming down from the dark cloud, and the gorillas standing in as the liverbirds!

Oh, and we used more artistic licence with the River Mersey, it ain't that blue ;)

We were a group of teachers from special, primary and secondary schools, yet all learnt something we could take back to school, and went home laughing and rejuvenated :)